Abdul Kalam12th President of IndiaIn officeJuly 25, 2002 – July 25, 2007Vice President(s) Bhairon Singh ShekhawatPreceded by K. R. NarayananSucceeded by Pratibha PatilBornOctober 15, 1931 (age 76)[1]Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram, MadrasPresidency,Political party Not affiliatedSpouse Never marriedReligion IslamAvul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (Tamil: அவல பகீர ைைனலாபதீனஅபதல கலாம)(Hindi: अवुल पििर जैनुलाअबदीन अबदलु िलाम) born October 15,1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ^) was thetwelfth President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007. A notable scientist and engineer,he is often referred to as the Missile Man of India for his work and is considered aprogressive mentor, innovator and visionary in India. He is also popularly known as thePeople's President. His term as president ended on July 25, 2007.Contents· 1 Honors· 2 Political views· 3 Personal life· 4 Books· 5 See also· 6 References· 7 External links HonorsKalam has received honorary doctorates from as many as thirty universities . TheGovernment of India has honored him with the nation's highest civilian honors: thePadma Bhushan in 1981; the Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997.Kalam is the third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna beforebeing elected to the highest office, the other two being Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan andZakir Hussain. He is also the first scientist and first bachelor to occupy RashtrapatiBhavan.Referred to as the "People's President", Kalam is often considered amongst India'sgreatest presidents, going on to win a poll conducted by news channel CNN-IBN forIndia's Best President.In October 2007, Kalam will receive a Honorary Doctorate of Science from theUniversity of Wolverhampton. Political viewsKalam's probable views on certain issues have been espoused by him in his book "India2020" where he strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a knowledgesuperpower and into a developed nation by the year 2020. Kalam is credited with theview that India ought to take a more assertive stance in international relations; he regardshis work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a futuresuperpower.Kalam continues to take an active interest in other developments in the field of scienceand technology as well. He has proposed a research programme for developing bioimplants.He is a supporter of Open source software over proprietary solutions andbelieves that the use of open source software on a large scale will bring more people thebenefits of information technology.Kalam's belief in the power of science to resolve society's problems and his views ofthese problems as a result of inefficient distribution of resources is modernistic. He alsosees science and technology as ideology-free areas and emphasizes the cultivation ofscientific temper and entrepreneurial drive. In this, he finds a lot of support among India'snew business leaders like the founders of Infosys and Wipro, (leading Indian ITcorporations) who began their careers as technology professionals much in the same wayKalam did. Personal lifeAPJ Abdul Kalam was born in 1931 in a middle-class family in Rameshwaram, a townwell-known for its Hindu shrines. His father, a devout Muslim, owned boats which herented out to local fishermen and was a good friend of Hindu religious leaders and theschool teachers at Rameshwaram. APJ Abdul Kalam mentions in his biography that tosupport his studies, he started his career as a newspaper vendor. This was also told in thebook, A Boy and His Dream: Three Stories from the Childhood of Abdul Kalam by VinitaKrishna. The house Kalam was born in can still be found on the Mosque street atRameswaram, and his brother's curio shop abuts it. This has become a point-of-call fortourists who seek out the place. Kalam grew up in an intimate relationship with nature,and he says in Wings of Fire that he never could imagine that water could be so powerfula destroying force as that he witnessed when he was six. That was in 1964 when acyclonic storm swept away the Pamban bridge and a trainload of passengers with it andalso Kalam's native village, Dhanushkodi.Kalam observes strict personal discipline, vegetarianism, teetotalism and celibacy Kalam is a scholar of Thirukkural; in most of his speeches, he quotes at least one kural.Kalam has written several inspirational books, most notably his autobiography Wings ofFire, aimed at motivating Indian youth. Another of his books, Guiding Souls: Dialogueson the Purpose of Life reveals his spiritual side. He has written poems in Tamil as well. Ithas been reported that there is considerable demand in South Korea for translatedversions of books authored by him.